Officials are probing how a 51-year-old highway bridge came to collapse in the Italian port city of Genoa yesterday, killing at least 26 people and injuring 16 others as it sent dozens of vehicles tumbling into a heap of concrete and twisted steel.

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"It's a huge amount of expenditure. If it was aimed at trying to prevent another fatality it is entirely ineffective," he said.

"It has achieved some maintenance to some trees but it is not going to significantly alter harm or mortality rates from trees at schools. They are so low that it is inconceivable that they would alter them. If you look at the mortality rate there has been one in every 30 million student years.